by Jasmine Taylor | Apr 13, 2023 | Elections
Yesterday, a press conference was held to announce the creation of the Election Protection Committee. This citizen group was created in response to the ineptitude of Sandra Merchant and the chaos happening within the Cascade County Clerk and Recorder’s office. Committee members Jane Weber and Pete Fontana delivered a public statement to the press. Their statements are transcribed below:
Jane Weber: Thank you for joining us today. I’m here with Pete Fontana.
We are here because elections in Cascade County are threatened.
The Cascade County Clerk and Recorder is not competent to do her job. She was recruited by the county’s new County Commissioner, Rae Grulkowski, to file for office. She won and now she’s in a panic because she does not know how to run an election.
Here is what we know:
Sandra Merchant presented her elections plan on March 31 st to more than 150 voters and the county commissioners; her plan was incomplete and lacked specificity. It created more questions than answers for voters. Even one commissioner questioned her rationale.
Sandra Merchant, when asked by one county commissioner and the Superintendent of School District 1, could not tell them what a poll election will cost those entities.
Sandra Merchant denied the Great Falls Public Schools from holding their traditional all-mail ballot election when mail balloting has successfully been done for decades!
Remember, elections for special districts like the School Districts, Irrigation Districts, Flood Districts or Library that are conducted by the county Elections Office must be paid for by the requesting entity. Yet, these entities are being forced to pay for a more expensive poll election when an all-mail ballot election has successfully worked for many years.
Sandra Merchant continually blames the Secretary of State’s new ElectMontana software for delays or problems in her office. When other counties were questioned about the software, we found their elections are moving forward on time without any major hitches. Can’t Sandra Merchant learn the system like everyone else?
Sandra Merchant hides behind County Commissioner, Rae Grulkowski, who attends almost every meeting with the Elections Official. You may recall, Commissioner Grulkowski attempted to stop voters from questioning Sandra Merchant at that March 31 st meeting by continually considering their question “not relevant.” The voters shouted her down several times so the voter’s questions could be asked.
Sandra Merchant allows her supporters to spread disinformation about offers made by the previous Election official to provide transitional training prior to Ms. Merchant’s swearing into office. THEN, when in office, Ms. Merchant NEVER ASKED FOR TRAINING from the Elections Office deputy until two days before she accepted a reassignment to another county Department.
Sandra Merchant continually confuses voters by flipflopping on her methodology – look at today! The required Public Test of the vote tabulator machine was originally scheduled for today, now it’s been moved to April 25 th . How did you find out? Certainly, not from the media, because Sandra Merchant never notified anyone, she merely posted it on the website.
Sandra Merchant couldn’t even pick up the phone until TODAY and call the Great Falls Public School Superintendent to notify him of the date change when his election is FIRST UP. When asked at county commission meeting, Commissioner Grulkowski said voters need to continually check the Election website for changes. With conditions constantly changing, how often must we do that, every hour?
Sandra Merchant, even after the Great Falls Public School District offered to help her, recruits election deniers to volunteer in the Election office. People who signed a 2022 petition proclaiming their rejection of the standing state and county election procedures. Specifically, those petition signers want to:
– ban all electronic voting equipment (excludes Automark machines)
– ban mail-in ballots except for overseas military, disabled or other qualified persons
– ballot turn in on election day only, with one day counting
– clean voter roles by requiring all qualified County residents to re-register”
AND THEN, Sandra Merchant allows those election deniers to work in the election office unsupervised. Why isn’t Sandra Merchant contacting the over 100 election judges to help in the election office? Election judges are trained and sworn to comply with election procedures, they are not elections deniers who reject the current election procedures.
Sandra Merchant hired a woman for her Election Office who was evicted from the 2020 November poll election by a county deputy attorney and deputy sheriff – evicted from this very hall – for violating poll watcher policies. Yes. She filmed the vote tabulator machine ON election day, a clear violation. That woman’s name is Deveraux Beatrice Biddick. She is second in command in the Election Office now. And, oh yes, she also signed that same petition renouncing current state and county election policies stated above. How does that happen?
Sandra Merchant attempted to change the June date for the library levy special election, a date that iscritically important if our library is to continue without reduced services.
And try to contact the Election Office?
Sandra Merchant does not accept or return telephone calls.
Sandra Merchant does not respond to emails.
THIS, FROM A WOMAN WHO CAMPAIGNED on the PROMISE OF TRANSPARENCY IN THE ELECTIONS OFFICE.
Where is the transparency????
How can the voters TRUST Ms. Merchant and her Election Office operations?
And now, let me turn the microphone over to Pete Fontana.
Pete Fontana:
We are here today because a group of concerned citizens has banded together to demand accountability in the Elections Office. We are pleased to announce the creation of the ELECTION PROTECTION COMMITTEE, a citizen group that will continue to investigate, monitor, and demand transparency from Sandra Merchant.
Our goal is simple – to protect free and fair elections in Cascade County and to demand the resignation of Sandra Merchant.
The Election Protection Committee has already sent numerous requests for information to the County. We will continue to share our findings with the media and the public. Further, we are examining the legal recourse available to voters of Cascade County. We are committed to fighting voter suppression and defending our Democracy.
We will not allow Sandra Merchant to disenfranchise Cascade County voters.
How can you get involved?
1. If you are not already receiving information, sign up to receive alerts about operations and changes made in the Elections Office – like the date of the Public Test.
2. Wear our buttons in public and talk to friends and relatives about the irregularities occurring in the Elections Office.
3. Attend events, like the Public Test, so you are informed.
4. Sign up to receive Election Judge training on April 26 and April 28 training by stopping by the Election Office. We need GOOD, HONORABLE people to serve as judges at the upcoming poll elections.
5. Register with the Election Office to be a poll watcher and monitor the May 2 nd election in this very building.
by Ken Toole | Nov 8, 2024 | Elections
Photo: County Commissioner Rae Grulkowski and Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a national group famous for responding to hate group activity, issued a series of three articles examining how disinformation, and those peddling it, are affecting the election process in its publication, Hatewatch. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2024/11/05/how-community-leaders-and-officials-two-states-took-election-deniers
WTF406 copied the section of Hatewatch which covered events in the Cascade County election office below.
Cascade County removes voting processes from election denier
At the other side of the country, the 2020 elections were handily decided in favor of Trump. Republicans won all the local races for the Montana Legislature in Cascade County. Yet Cascade County still found election deniers pushing lies and conspiracy theories. In 2022, an election denier won the race for Cascade County clerk and recorder, a position that administers elections in the county. The victory didn’t last long.
Ahead of the 2022 general election, local election deniers kept showing up at Cascade County Commission meetings questioning the security of local elections, requesting access to voting machines, calling for the elimination of ballot drop boxes and asking for a hand-recount of ballots from 2020. Outside of the county commission meetings, they approached ballot-box watchers about their personal information and political affiliations while also asking for the names and contact information for all election judges since 2020.
“They’ve no right to find out what political party they [ballot-box watchers] might belong to or if they belong to one or what their names are,” then-Cascade County Commissioner Don Ryan told the local press. “They’re asking those questions. That, to me, is kind of an intimidation.”
Many of the tactics used and requests made by the election deniers mirror those used in Georgia and across the country. Local deniers cited discredited conspiracy theorist and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell as a source for their claims.
Following the 2022 general election, county staff and election officials were preparing provisional and military ballots to be counted, a significant task since the county is home to an Air Force base. Staff called law enforcement when they noticed election deniers circling the building and waiting for the election crew to leave for the night. The election deniers took videos and photos of the election workers and their vehicle license plate numbers. Staff told local media they were afraid and worried this type of harassment could escalate to physical violence.
Election mismanagement harms democracy
With the election deniers and the far right focused on local organizing in 2022, Sandra Merchant, a medical coder with no experience working elections, ran against the 16-year incumbent, Rina Moore, for the position of Cascade County clerk and recorder.
Merchant said she was running for the office because “Election security is a big topic right now,” and she felt that “oversight by the people is necessary to keep the government accountable.”
In an email to Hatewatch, Merchant said she attended a few meetings held by the local election deniers before running for office, but she said she had been “interested in election integrity for a long time.”
The race with Moore was close. A recount declared Merchant the winner by fewer than 40 votes out of just under 29,400 cast. Election deniers showed up at the recount, sporting camouflage, sharing false conspiracy theories and watching the recount with binoculars even though it was happening only a few feet away.
Merchant’s tenure in office was marked by errors, mismanagement of elections and scrutiny from the community. In smaller local elections, community members reported problems such as not receiving their ballots, voters being turned away from the polls, voters receiving multiple ballots, ineligible voters receiving ballots and other irregularities. Her performance led the local library board to successfully sue to have a special monitor appointed to oversee its mill levy election.
A local election protection committee steps in
As the mistakes piled up, concerned community members formed the Election Protection Committee. Jasmine Taylor, the committee’s coordinator, wrote in a blog post that it was created in response to “the ineptitude of Sandra Merchant and the chaos happening within the Cascade County clerk and recorder’s office.” In addition to pointing out mistakes Merchant had made with elections, the committee noted she stacked her office with local election deniers. The Election Protection Committee began campaigning for the Cascade County Commission to remove election duties from Merchant’s office.
According to Taylor, the committee used its “intensive oversight” of county processes to gather information about the problems. This involved going to every county commission meeting to be a source of information for the community and the media. At crucial moments, the committee turned people out for rallies in front of the clerk and recorder’s office.
The committee’s leadership also met consistently with county commissioners and presented documentation of the errors committed by Merchant’s office. “We were going into these meetings with commissioners with 40 pages of errors,” Taylor explained. “Here are 40 voters, and this is what’s wrong in their ballots.” That evidence had a “tremendous impact,” Taylor noted, in getting the conservative commissioners to realize the issue was about elections and not politics.
“It doesn’t really matter if it’s malfeasance or incompetence, because at the end of the day, even if it’s just incompetence, you [county commissioners] have liability,” Taylor said they stressed to the commissioners. “If voters’ rights are being violated, you have liability.”
Despite the controversy, Merchant did little to distance herself from election deniers and hard-right extremists. In May 2023, she did an interview with James White of Northwest Liberty News. Northwest Liberty’s Rumble site features videos of White interviewing a wide range of antigovernment extremists, including Oath Keepers’ Stewart Rhodes, Ammon Bundy, Constitutional Sheriff and Peace Officers’ Richard Mack and Sam Bushman.
In August 2023, Merchant met with infamous election conspiracy theorist Douglas Frank at her office before he gave a community presentation that evening. Frank travels the country pushing false conspiracy theories about voting machines and urging people to investigate supposed fraud in their areas. Merchant told a journalist it was interesting and encouraged people to follow his advice. Frank told attendees that evening to “rise up” and urged attendees not to call law enforcement, but rather grab their guns when confronted by peaceful protesters.
By December 2023, Cascade County commissioners held a meeting to vote on removing duties from Merchant’s office. Nearly 100 residents testified for nearly seven hours, before the commission voted 2-1 to remove election duties from Merchant and place them under an election administrator housed under the commission.
“It was politically motivated,” Merchant told Hatewatch about the decision. “After I won, and before I had set foot in the office,” Merchant stated, “they said they were going to have me removed.” Merchant did not address the accusations of election errors that were cited in her removal.
The Election Protection Committee treated public officials with respect and presented evidence. According to Taylor, the election deniers led with name-calling, threats and volatility.
The committee also kept their eye on the local problem before them, declining to engage with election deniers on the debunked disinformation championed by Lindell and Frank. Instead, the committee focused on what was happening locally when it came to election problems affecting irrigation districts, city commission races and levy elections for the public library and schools. “We are talking hyper-local,” Taylor said. “Those people [election deniers], for the life of them, could not get off of those national narratives. All they’re doing is conspiracy theories.”
Asked if she had advice for other communities, Taylor said the biggest issue is controlling the narrative. “Establishing credibility is really important,” she said. “Grassroots local really works when you have a group of dedicated people.”
Editor’s note: This is the third in a three-part series.
Part I: Election disinformation harms communities and democracy
Part II: Cottage Industry of Conspiracy Theorists Peddles Mistrust of Elections
by Guest Writer | Jun 22, 2024 | City
After the previous safety levy for the City of Great Falls failed in the last election by a wide margin, 9,095 no to 5,620 yes, the city went back to the drawing board, beginning by appointing another advisory group to study the issue. We decided to put out a few thoughts as this advisory begins its work.
Don’t waste a lot of money on polling and/or promotion- People in the city are already talking about commissioning a poll to find out what people think. Truth is people have just been hit with large property tax increases. We don’t need polling and messaging to tell us passing any kind of property tax increase will not be popular. Make clear what is being proposed and trust people to make their own conclusions.
Quit Playing Politics with an “Advisory Committee”- It is hard to figure out the logic for the appointments made for this committee. Apparently there was no application process for citizens who might have been interested in participating. And no process for deciding what qualifications the City wanted for members. Worse yet, it appears that political consideration rather than knowledge of related issues was a major driver. The members of the committee are: Sandra Guynn, Mike Parcel, Wendy McKamey, Jeni Dodd, George Nikolakakos, Aaron Weissman, Tony Rosales, Thad Reiste, Joe McKenney and Shannon Wilson.
Separate Fire and EMT funding from Police and Crime- Fire and emergency medical services are fundamentally different from policing. Wrapping them together in a levy forces voters to take or leave the whole thing. Very few people have a negative view of the services provided by fire and emergency personnel. Like it or not the same can not be said of police.
Make Clear Economic Arguments to Justify Increased Taxes- Rick Tryon’s crime task force back in 2021 didn’t do anybody any favors. It ended up producing a laundry list of expensive items which many citizens did not understand or support. To the extent the city wants to put an increase in the budgets of the police and local courts, it should emphasize things that save money like jail diversion programs, drug treatment and use of un-armed personnel wherever possible. In the area of fire protection, people should understand that their home and business insurance rates are directly ties to the safety rating of the local fire department.
by Jasmine Taylor | Jan 4, 2024 | Elections
The recent decision by the Cascade County Commission to remove election administration from the Clerk and Recorder’s office has generated heated (often false) accusations and covered facts in smoke. To put it simply, the elected Clerk and Recorder was not performing the duties of the job. The Cascade County Commission should be commended for taking action.
In late 2022, a small group of election deniers submitted a petition to the County Commission demanding election “reforms” which included requiring all voters to re-register, eliminating mail- in ballots and banning all forms of electronic voting machines. The reforms requested were based on the disproved conspiracy theory that Trump won the 2020 election.
The November 2022 election was a Republican sweep in Cascade County. Election denier, Sandra Merchant, defeated 16-year incumbent Clerk and Recorder Rina Moore by less than 40 votes. After the election, Moore made numerous offers to work with Merchant to review the election office operations. But, in the end, Merchant agreed to only one brief meeting.
The first elections administered by Merchant were held in May 2023. The School Trustee election was plagued with problems. But School District officials did not pursue legal remedies because it was unclear whether the errors would change the outcome and the expense of running another election was significant. In September, the School District formally asked the County Commission to remove the election duties from Merchant’s office.
In May, there were also elections held for a local flood district and an irrigation district. Merchant’s office also made numerous errors in those elections. As a result, lawsuits were filed against the county. The outcome of these elections remains uncertain. They are currently winding their way through the court system.
An election on a proposed library mill levy was held in June. Numerous problems were found in Merchant’s handling of the library election materials. Early in the process, supporters of the library mill levy went to court requesting the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the election because of these problems. In addition, materials opposing the levy were handed out by volunteers working in Merchant’s offices. The judge appointed a monitor to oversee the election and required regular reports be sent for her review.
Throughout this time, Merchant was hiring staff and election judges from the ranks of local election deniers, including many who had signed the 2022 petition to the County Commission demanding “reforms.” Two family members of Republican Public Service Commissioner Randy Pinocci (who was recently charged with felony witness tampering) were also given jobs in the Clerk and Recorder/Election office.
Throughout all of 2023, Merchant consistently refused to talk to the press and blamed problems in the elections office on former employees, other county employees, contractors and vendors. Merchant was also criticized for having a private meeting with Douglas Frank, a national figure in the election denier movement who is under investigation by the FBI for an alleged breach of voting machines in Colorado. When asked about the meeting, Merchant was quoted in the Daily Montanan saying it was “interesting hearing what he had to say” and was eager to hear more.
It was the November 2023 Municipal election that finally prompted the County Commission to remove the election duties from the Clerk and Recorder. Merchant again made numerous errors which included failing to provide 48-hour advance public notice of the canvass meeting for the Municipal election. After hours spent re-calculating data from the vote tabulator machine, Commissioners were unable to balance the canvas with the information Merchant provided.
Last month during a seven-hour public hearing where Cascade County Commissioners deliberated on whether to remove the election duties, and ultimately voted to do so. Commissioners Joe Briggs and Jim Larson were vilified by Merchant’s supporters both during this meeting and in the days since. The truth is both of these commissioners set politics aside and focused on ensuring free and fair elections are held in Cascade County. They did the right thing.
Jasmine Taylor is the Coordinator for The Election Protection Committee, a volunteer citizen’s group dedicated to free and fair elections in Cascade County
by WTF 406 Staff | Nov 8, 2023 | Elections
On November 7 Cascade County voters struggled to vote in another confusing and poorly administered election. In the run up to the election, voters contacted a volunteer monitoring group, The Election Protection Committee, with a host of problems including some voters who did not receive their ballot in the mail and others who received numerous ballots in the mail. Surprisingly, some voters residing outside the city limits received ballots even though they were ineligible to vote in yesterday’s city election. Ironically, still others were denied a ballot because the Clerk and Recorder’s office could not decipher city boundary lines and erroneously did not believe they were city residents.
When election day arrived, voters discovered they could not obtain a ballot nor deposit their voted ballots at the fairgrounds. For decades, voters could obtain a ballot, replace a damaged or lost ballot or same-day register and vote at the fairgrounds for the municipal election – 108 people showed up yesterday to vote and were sent downtown to the Election Office. In addition, 180 voted ballots were not permitted to be deposited at the fairgrounds, instead voters were instructed to deposit their voted ballots at the Election Office. There, voters encountered difficulties finding parking and long lines because of the limited space. No one knows how many of the people who started their voting journey at the fairgrounds simply gave up and did not vote because of time constraints and inconvenience.
It’s easy to say, “Well, election problems didn’t really matter because of the wide margins between the winning and losing candidates.” Only 73 votes separated Shannon Wilson and Eric Hinebauch in their race for city commission. Sandra Merchant’s foul ups could account for that difference. Just like the school board trustee election last spring, none of these candidates are likely to contest this election (even if they think there were significant errors) because of the potential cost to re-run an election.
That’s all well and good, but the next elections Merchant will oversee include all of the state-wide offices and a US Senate and Congressional Races. These campaigns will have the resources to challenge any problems they see. The truth is Sandra Merchant’s incompetence could determine the control of the US Senate in the next general election. And that is a scary thought.
KT
